Hey, guys. This idea just won't leave me alone. I hope you will like this story as well. I can assure you that I won't neglect my other stories because of this one. I will the other still open stories soon. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this one as well. And I can assure you that this will be Rizzles at the end. Enjoy. This is a revised version of the chapter. Thanks to my beta.
T73.
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It is a chilly day of late autumn in Boston and the people on the streets are dressed like they are preparing themselves for a hard onset of winter.
Detective Jane Rizzoli is emerging out of Boston Joe's and is wrapping her coat tightly around herself and she's shuddering visibly. She hates that part of the year and she hates the fact that she has to leave her cozy apartment to get to her work place. She really does love her job and she does it with much blood, sweat and tears. She is the only woman in the Homicide unit of BPD and somehow she's proud about that. Proud that she had her way in this world of men, that she survived in this tank of sharks. Probably she became the most dangerous shark of them all. She inhales the cool air through her mouth and starts to make her way to her unmarked car, in the same it starts raining. She groans and starts sprinting towards her car, but she hates the fact that she has parked that far away from the coffee shop. Jane's fishing her keys out of the coat pocket and unlocks the dark blue cruiser. She finally realizes that this will be one of these days when she rather stayed in her bed.
First her coffee maker had broken, then she had to wait in a ineffable long line to get her first caffeine boost and now it started to pour. She sighs heavily as she sits down on the driver's seat and turns the heater up. She's freezing in her motion and arches an eyebrow. "Don't sat a word," she growls warningly.
The blonde woman, who is sitting on the passenger's seat, looks at her and is smiling amused. "When we would have left your apartment instead of you yelling at your broken coffee maker, we wouldn't be late for work now, Jane."
Jane turns slowly her head to the other woman and glares at her. "Really? That's your reaction on Don't say a word, Maura?"
Dr. Maura Isles smirks broadly. She is the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Jane Rizzoli's best friend. She knows that the Italian isn't much of a morning person and that Jane can get really cranky when nothing is working the way Jane wants to.
She stayed at Jane's place after the two women had gone over a case they just had solved. "What else should I have said to you, Jane?"
"Nothing at all," Jane replies emphatically and starts the engine. "That's what Don't say a word means."
Maura scoffs and is looking out of her window. "You know, you don't have to lock the car when I am sitting in it. I won't run away."
Jane is frowning a little but smiles when she turns the car on the street. "It's a old habit, Maura. And God knows what kind of idea an idiot gets when he sees you sitting in the car."
The blonde turns her head and smiles at her friend. "That's very thoughtful of you, Jane."
"I am a really thoughtful person," the Italian says without looking at Maura. What she doesn't say out loud is the fact that she is madly in love with her best friend. There are two reasons why she doesn't do so: First, she doesn't want to jeopardize their friendship they have build up over all those years. The two of them already gone through too much together to risk their friendship just because some irrelevant feelings of the Italian.
And second, Jane doesn't admit her true feelings for Maura because the blonde has started to date a prosecutor named Benjamin Payton over two years ago.
Jane hasn't thought that this little love affair would really last that long, but somehow Maura had thought that she finally has found the right guy. And one year later they gotten married.
It is Jane killing that she never had the courage to tell her blonde her true feeling and that Jane has lost the chance to get happy herself, but she was too afraid that Maura wouldn't have the same feeling for her. And so she has accepted her faith reluctantly.
Jane can't really when she was starting to fall for the ME, but she knows that it was just a matter of time since they started to get closer. Somehow she is thanking her boogeyman Charles Hoyt for that. She's thinking herself that this is a little morbid, but wouldn't he have been she probably wouldn't have started a friendship with Maura or would have left their relationship just work related. And she knows that she only was able to put an end to this nightmare because she had to protect Maura, because she had to safe Maura. At that day in the hospital she didn't really care about her own well-being, but she cared about Maura's. She has never told Maura why she got the strength to defeat two men and she surely will never tell her, but seeing Maura defenseless, helpless, it stirred something deep inside of the Italian.
Jane takes a deep breath and clench her teeth briefly. "So, how is it going with Ben?"
Maura is still looking out of her window and shrugs. "Great so far. Well, he's currently very busy and you know that we had this case last week, so we didn't see each other much. But tomorrow we wanna go to this French restaurant that you always refused to go."
Jane turns up her nose. "I'm not the greatest fan of frog legs and snails."
Maura laughs amused and looks at her best friend. "French people doesn't only eat frog legs and escargots, Jane. The French cuisine is very balanced and delicious."
"Delicious, my ass." The Italian mumbles and is flinching as Maura pinches her side.
"However," Maura continues. "I am not only hoping that we won't case a new case until after tomorrow. I'm not only craving for the entrée."
Jane makes a face. She exactly knows what Maura means and it makes her sick. "Seriously?"
Maura is laughing amused and shrugs again. "Do you know how long it has been since the last time I had sex, Jane?"
Jane is looking briefly at Maura and shakes her head. The thought of Ben Payton being all over the blonde makes her want to throw up. "No, and I don't wanna know it either, Maura." Now she is really hoping that they will catch a case so Maura and her husband can't go on this damn date. She is more or less praying for that since she knows that the blonde has something else in her mind than just food. She is well aware that she really should be happy for her best friend and that she has to stuff those feelings back into the little box she has created. But the harder she's trying to do so, the harder those feelings are coming back. They are like a Jack in the box. As soon she's closing the lid of the box, they're popping out again. And the fact that she doesn't like Benjamin Payton doesn't make anything any easier. He really is a handsome man, but he's also a prig. He's thinking of himself that he's the center of the universe and that he is better than anyone else around him, even better than Maura. Jane doesn't really know what the ME is seeing in this shallow man.
Maura groans when Jane's phone starts ringing and the Italian has to suppress a smug smile. It seems to her that some higher power has heard her prayers. She activates the hands-free kit of her car and looks at Maura. "Rizzoli."
Maura rolls her eyes and shakes her head because she has seen the spark in brown eyes.
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The two women are arriving at the cordoned off crime scene and they duck under the police tape.
Jane can see a dilapidated forest cabin and knit her eyebrows as she put on her gloves. She's looking down and groans when she sees the dirt on the pant legs of her light grey suit. "I really should've considered to wear a dark suit."
Maura chuckles and is nodding agreeing.
"Don't say it," Jane warns her.
Maura still chuckles. She has told the Italian that it will be a rainy day and that she shouldn't wear a light suit, but she should have know better because Jane did chose the light one just because of stubbornness.
Jane huffs and l looks at the younger man who seems to be waiting for them. "Hey, Frost. What do we got?"
Detective Barry Frost passes her his tablet and furl his eyebrows. "Remember this one?"
Jane looks down at the device and sees an older newspaper article that is about a missing twenty-four year old woman with the name Jill Masterson. She went missing nine weeks ago when she was on her way home from her boyfriend's birthday party. There wasn't a ransom demand or any signs of her or her kidnapper. Neither Jill nor her parents are loaded, that's why the police suspected pretty fast that Jill became a victim of a sexual offender what totally made sense because Jill has disappeared completely.
Jane sighs heavily and hands the tablet back to Frost. "Please tell me that our victim isn't Jill Masterson."
Maura looks horrified at the two detectives. "Jill Masterson? The abducted woman who was in the news all week?"
Frost is nodding agreeing. "I am afraid she's our victim."
"Damn it." Jane sighs and closes her eyes briefly. "I hate destroying the last hope of a family." She says and enters the cabin and sees the body of the young woman in the middle of the room that surely once was the living room. She sees a tarp over the body to prevent it from the water that is leaking through the roof. "Is that ours?"
"Here's the strange thing." Sergeant Detective Vince Korsak says as he joins them. "The tarp was already hanging there when we arrived."
She looks long at the older man and is frowning deeply. "So, the murderer left it here?"
Korsak nods slowly and closes his notepad.
The Italian furl her eyebrows and looks closer at the victim.
Jill Masterson is looking like she is fast asleep. She wears a tight black dress and she's holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands. And she has absolutely no visible stab or gunshot wounds.
Jane is crouching down next to Maura and takes a deep breath. "I can't see any wounds," she pauses when she hears her friend huffing and rolls her eyes. "It was a statement, Maura, and not a question."
Korsak and Frost are sharing a look and snicker.
Both men do know about Jane's feelings for the ME. She had told them in a drunken state one night, but she had swore them to secrecy.
Jane points at the neck of Jill. "Are those ligature marks?"
Maura takes a closer look and is pursing her lips. "Yes, but the marks are unusually thin."
Jane opens her mouth to ask Maura what the murder weapon probably was, but then she stops herself because she knows that it is useless, unless she wants to be lectured by her friend. So she rather points at the flowers in the victim's hands. "It looks like she was lied in repose. Maura, what flowers are these?"
Maura looks briefly at the flowers and frowns slightly. "Uh, Convallaria majalis."
The Italian blinks a couple of times and her shoulders are slumping. "Translation, please."
"Convallaria majalis," Maura replies and looks at Jane. "They are also known as lily of the valley."
Jane rolls her eyes and gets up to her feet again. Of course. Why didn't she know that? She looks at the two amused men and warns them with her gaze. "It strikes me slightly odd. The murderer really took care of the entire crime scene, not caring to leave any evidence. He brought his own tarp, dressed her up, placed Jill's body -" She put some thought into the whole situation. "Like he really cared for her, loved her."
"She went missing nine weeks ago." Frost states. "Maybe a forlorn adorer?"
Jane is nodding slowly and knit her eyebrows. "Mmm, who found her?"
Korsak nods in the direction of the police tape. "Brandon Callahan, an employee of the demolition company that was supposed to pull down the cabin."
Jane clench her teeth and looks in the direction of the chubby man who perhaps is in his mid-forties. "We have to check his background. Making sure that there is no connection between Jill and Brandon."
Korsak nods agreeing and is looking at Frost.
Frost rolls his eyes and glares at the older man. "I'm on it." He says and is heading for his car.
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Jane is standing in the autopsy room and chews with a deep frown on the nail of her pinky.
Maura looks worriedly at the Italian and frowns as well. "What is it, Jane?"
Jane drops her hand again and sighs heavily, eyeing the lifeless body of Jill Masterson on the autopsy table. "I was thinking about her family and friends. They were keeping their hopes up that Jill will come back home safe and sound, but now she's laying here on your table, being dead. I mean ... We had nine weeks to find her."
Maura is straightening her back and looks long at the detective. "Jane, kidnapping doesn't fall within your remit. You are not responsible for Jill Masterson's death."
"I know," Jane sighs and rubs her left brow. "And yet it feels like the whole system has failed, like BPD has failed. I mean, we all did talk about her abduction, and we also assumed that she was a runaway. I -"
"Jane," Maura says softly and frowns a little. "I think that this possibility crossed everybody's mind. She was a young woman with a normal life. Even the news assumed that Jill probably ran off because she got tired of her life. Her death is not the fault of you or the authority that you are working for."
The Italian runs an hand through her thick curls and she licks her lips. "This case just gives me something to think about. I mean, how many Jill Masterson's are out there, Maura? How many missing persons are we dismissing out of hand? How many cases of runaways are actually murder cases, or cases of abduction?"
Maura looks long at her best friend . She exactly knows what Jane is talking about. She saw too many people who seemed to be runaways in her career whose cases were given away inconsiderably, in San Francisco and in Boston. That's why she prefers to not give too much thought about how they disappeared, it's not her business. Her job is to find out how they died and what happened to the victims after they were abducted.
Jane shakes her head and takes a deep breath. "Never mind. I should focus on this case. What's the cause of death, Dr. Isles."
Maura has to smile a little. "She was strangled to death."
"You can't tell me what the murder weapon was, can you?"
"There are too many possibilities, Jane. It could have been a wire, a string, a cable -"
Jane nods slowly. "Okay, I got it. Was Jill sexual abused?"
Maura licks her lips and hesitates for a moment. "Yes, multiple times."
"Great. We're looking for a kidnapper, rapist and killer." Jane grumbles. "I feel so much safer."
Maura sighs heavily and raises briefly her eyebrows. "There are no signs of massive traumas beside -"
"Beside the strangulation and rape?" Jane cuts her off and frowns.
Maura is glaring at her. "She is undernourished and has a vitamin deficiency."
Jane is sighing heavily and rubs her face with both of her hands. "Anything else so far?"
The blonde shakes her head and pull off her gloves. "No, I'm still waiting for the results from the lab. I'll text you as soon as I got them."
Jane nods again and heads for the double door. "All right, thanks, Maura. I, uh, have to get upstairs and shatter the last hope of Jill's parents."
Maura takes a deep breath and takes her white lab coat in her hand. "Jane, do you wanna have a couple of drinks with me after work? At the Dirty Robber."
Jane looks long at her friend and frowns as her phone starts vibrating at her hip. "Um, don't you think that your husband is starting to miss the evenings with you when you spend them all with me? We don't want that he gets the wrong impression, do we?"
Maura smiles broadly as she put on her coat. "He could join us there."
Jane is looking down at her phone to avoid hazel eyes. She knows that Maura would notice her disapproving look. She has no idea how she was able to stand in the church as Maura's maid of honor and watch how her best friend and love of her life getting married to the wrong person. She has seen the disapproving looks of her own mother that she had every now and then during the entire ceremony. From that moment on she was well aware that Angela knows about her inappropriate feelings for the ME. She is grateful that her mother hasn't broached those feelings that she has for Maura. Yet. She furrow her eyebrows and looks up as she has gotten her feelings back under control. "I don't know when I'll get outta here, Maura. We just started to investigate Jill's case. It probably will get late. Why don't you and Ben enjoy the evening together at the Dirty Robber and when it won't be too late, I'll join you."
Maura let the words sink in and nods with a heavy sigh. "Yeah, sure."
Jane's phone is vibrating again and Jane rolls her eyes. "All right, I really have to get upstairs. Our victim's parents just came in."
The ME nods again and watches Jane leaving the autopsy room. She knows that Jane is acting strangely since the day of her wedding, and she can't explain what the reason is. She has seen Jane's disapproving looks the day she has met Ben for the first time, but she really tried to act nicely the whole time. Of course there was a slip every now and then, but then Jane regained her control again and excused herself for that. Ben, on the other hand, liked Jane from the first day they got to know each other. He just laughed Jane's innuendoes off and joked along with the Italian. And then the day of her wedding gas arrived and she has noticed that the normally talkative Italian was unusually quiet. Maura, of course, has asked Jane what was wrong, but Jane shook her head and blamed her lack of sleep.
Maura sighs heavily and takes her phone from the metal table, writing a message to her husband.
